Undergraduate basic statistics
New York University — from Spring 2019 to Spring 2021
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This introductory course is designed to prepare undergraduate & master’s level students to use statistics for data analysis. This course covers descriptive and inferential statistics; including frequency distributions, graphs, measures of central tendency, measures of variability, sampling, probability, z-score, the normal distribution, and tests of hypothesis such as t-tests, ANOVA, linear correlation and regression, and chi-squared analysis. Effect size, study designs (observational and experimental) and research concepts (association and causation; confounding and interaction) will also be addressed. The IBM-SPSS software will be used for data analysis.

Introduction to US education: historical and contemporary perspectives
New York University — Fall 2022
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Throughout the semester we will look at a number of important issues in contemporary US schooling through the lens of history. How have these issues developed over the last three hundred years? What has changed? Who have the prime change agents been? We will also discuss all of these issues as they are in schools today. What is happening now? What should happen? What are the forces for change—for the better or for worse?

For those who are preparing for careers in teaching, or for students who are interested in education as a field of study (who may want to be journalists or researchers or activists in the field), this course should provide important background historical context. For students of history or politics or who bring a general interest to the questions of this course, Introduction to U.S. Education is designed to help us understand current political, pedagogical, and economic debates.

Political economy of education: why does college cost so much?
New York University — Fall 2022
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College in the United States is expensive, really expensive. For 2022-23, a 120 credit undergraduate degree costs at least $200,000 at many private elite universities (like NYU) – plus all sorts of miscellaneous fees, lodging and food charges, books and more. Why does it cost so much? Is it a good deal? Why do so many high school students apply to study at such expensive institutions when there are cheaper alternatives available? Who is able to attend, and who is excluded? Why do college costs keep rising so fast? Shouldn’t college be free? The purpose of this course is to provide answers to these kinds of questions. It will introduce students to a range of economic concepts and empirical evidence that speaks to: the value of higher education for individuals and for societies; federal, state, and institutional financial aid policies; university budgets and spending priorities. We will consider individual student, institutional and societal perspectives.

Qualitative methods in international education
New York University — Spring 2022
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This course provides an introduction to qualitative methods that scholars and practitioners use in international and comparative education and the social sciences more broadly. It is intended to provide an overview of research design, data collection, and data analysis and presentation most commonly associated with qualitative research.

URS seminar: research, creative work and the public good
University of Wisconsin-Madison — 2016-17
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The course is designed to introduce students to the practice of research and creative work, and its implications for society. The course has two components: the work you do as an assistant on faculty projects, and your participation in the small group seminar. In the school year 2016-17, the seminar is dedicated to the theme: research, creative work and the public good. We will spend the year critically exploring this theme across different disciplines, and touching on a range of societal problems. The theme is to provoke reflection in our research or creative work experiences, and in the different parts of the world we inhabit. Come prepared to share your thinking on the topics introduced. Through discussions, activities and assignments you may learn as much from one another as you learn through your research project.

URS seminar: research and creative work at the boundaries
University of Wisconsin-Madison — 2015-16
more syllabus F-15 syllabus S-16
The course is designed to introduce students to the practice of research and creative work, and its implications for society. The course has two components: the work you do as an assistant on faculty projects, and your participation in the small group seminar. In the school year 2015-16, the seminar is dedicated to the theme: research and creative work at the boundaries. We will spend the year critically exploring this theme across different disciplines, and touching on a range of societal problems. The theme is to provoke reflection in our research or creative work experiences, and in the different parts of the world we inhabit. Come prepared to share your thinking on the topics introduced. Through discussions, activities and assignments you may learn as much from one another as you learn through your research project.

PhD dissertation
Essays on the dynamics of Black-White advanced course-taking inequalities
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The purpose of the project is to identify and explore the dynamics of the mechanisms generating Black-White advanced course-taking inequalities within schools. The project constructs a series of qualitatively-informed agent-based models which and explore the conditions which foster/hinder the emergence of these inequalities. Models are empirically calibrated and validated according to national data from American schools.

Committee members
- L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy (Chair)
- Samuel Lucas
- Erez Hatna
- Ravi Shroff

PhD coursework
Areas of concentration: school organization; quantitative methods.
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Chosen courses result from the required courses for program completion and elective courses chosen together with the PhD advisor.

Comprehensive oral exam
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The doctoral comprehensive examination in the Sociology of Education program is intended for students to achieve and demonstrate a comprehensive working knowledge of a large subfield of sociology. We trust that the knowledge facilitated by the exam will serve our students well as they write their dissertations and continue into subsequent stages of their careers. The exam consists of an oral examination in two areas: (1) a list of 18 books and articles that our program considers to be foundational to the field of Sociology of Education and (2) approximately 32 additional readings (for a total of approximately 50 readings on the comps list), both theoretical and empirical, in an area of the student’s specialization.

Independent study: Black-White within-school achievement gaps
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In this independent study, my goal was to review some of the key explanations for within-school achievement gaps in the sociology of education literature. I am particularly interested in texts discussing how school contexts and school characteristics contribute to or mitigate the production of academic inequality within schools. My literature review focuses on four key themes: (1) peer networks, (2) student course taking, (3) teacher expectations and (4) parental influence.

A dashboard of inequality in Sao Paulo high schools
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Host of new books in education
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The New Books Network is the largest book podcast network in the world, reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners a month and with listeners downloading well over a million NBN episodes each month. The purpose of NBN interviews is to allow authors to tell the audience what they found in their research and what they wrote in their books. It is a wonderful idea, connecting authors with a large audience worldwide, and advancing the broad goal of public education.